Hurricane Katrina hut the USA Southern Coast on 28^th August 2005, and the effect was disastrous. It has been estimated that about 1,800 men, women and children died in the storms and subsequent flooding, and damage costing over eighty billion dollars was caused. Many of the consequences are still with us and even years later we have still not managed to repair the material devastation, let alone the shattered lives.Apart from human lives, the effect upon the animal life of the region, which included about a quarter of a million pets was very traumatic since many of them had to be abandoned to their fates as their owners fled for their lives. Most owners probably expected to be able to return in a day or two but the scale of the devastation meant that it was weeks in most cases before help was available and those pets that did survive had to face a struggle for existence without food or fresh water. The efforts to save many of these unfortunate animals from death by starvation or disease has been called the world's biggest ever animal rescue operation with rescue workers in many cases risking their own lives to wade through treacherous floods and break into unstable houses to bring food and help to starving pets, with vets working inhumanly long hours to care for them and nurture them back to health - truly a heart warming story of humanity's compassion for fellow creatures in the face of a mutual disaster.

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